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Symbols of a
Malevolent Fate

An artist responds to the tragic events
of his time with myth and imagination.

By

Hilton Kramer

Updated Sept. 17, 2005 11:59 p.m. ET

The world of art in the 21st century -- the world of modern art, as we still call it -- does not respond comfortably to the idea of a masterpiece. The word itself, with its hierarchical character and its implied reference to the venerable achievements of the Old Masters, seems somehow inappropriate -- too grandiose, perhaps -- when applied to works of art created in what we still think of as modern times. Yet, as modernism has itself acquired a history of achievements that transcend the acrimonious controversies of its birth, it was inevitable that certain works of modernist art would make a special claim on our attention...